As the Port of Wilmington’s two new massive cranes -- larger and longer than the port’s formerly biggest models -- passed by Southport and arrived at the port, officials beamed and hopped from foot to foot like kids on Christmas morning.

It looked like the end of Project LIFT. Last week Clayton Wilcox, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, released his revamped administration plan. Gone was the special zone created for the $50 million public-private partnership that set out to transform West Charlotte High and its feeder schools.

A pair of coal ash basins at Duke Energy’s Sutton Steam Plant site leached toxic metals into groundwater at levels above state standards on hundreds of occasions between June 2016 and September 2017, according to a StarNews analysis of 2,400 pages of data reported by the energy giant.

Drive past clustered hog sheds containing thousands of animals in the country's No. 2 pork-producing state on the wrong day and the reason hundreds of North Carolina neighbors are suing in federal court is clear: it really stinks.

A three-judge panel has brushed aside objections from lawyers for the North Carolina General Assembly and ordered state government to pay $124,125 to the special master in a successful lawsuit against racial gerrymandering.

When most people think of mass transit, they envision a city bus or perhaps a light-rail line like the one being planned between Chapel Hill and Durham. But the N.C. Department of Transportation has put out a long-range plan for transit in North Carolina that calls for public bus lines reaching out into rural parts of the state.